Worth the Drive: The San Diego Zoo African Summer Festival

Worth the Drive is NBCLA's twice weekly look at nearby getaways

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Asian elephant Farina stands next to her little son during his first outing on May 14, 2010 at the zoo in Hanover, central Germany. Two baby elephans were born on May 7 and 11 at the zoo. AFP PHOTO DDP/STEFAN SIMONSEN GERMANY OUT (Photo credit should read STEFAN SIMONSEN/AFP/Getty Images)

Your job: Decide to get out of town and fast. Our job: Help you find where you're headed. This week, NBCLA's Worth the Drive takes us to...

The African Summer Festival: It's celebration of the cultures and creatures of Africa with live music, acrobatics, crafts and more. You'll find yourself in the middle of Africa, where more than 3,500 rare and amazing animals live and and play.

Elephant Odyssey: The zoos newest attraction, a $45 million is home to the zoo's eight elephants. The 7-acre habitat is more than 3 times the size of the Zoo's former elephant exhibit.

Name an elephant: You can submit a name suggestion to the San Diego Zoo for its youngest elephant calf until July 25. The chosen English name will be translated into Siswati, the native language of Swaziland. The entire elephant herd has symbolic names.

Don't miss: The Panda Research Station, one of the most popular places in the zoo. The fifth panda was born at the San Diego Zoo last August.